Ongoing IT support or billing by the hour?

Updated: 9 October 2026

The decision hangs on a single number: how many support hours you actually need per month. With us ongoing support costs from €29 per workstation and month, help without a contract €95 per hour. Depending on the number of workstations the contract is cheaper from roughly one and a half support hours a month (five workstations) to three (ten workstations) — and it already includes monitoring and updates, while verified backups come as a separate item from €49 per month. Under hourly billing nobody pays for either, and therefore nobody does them.

The difference between the two models is smaller in price and larger in behaviour. Whoever bills by the hour earns from faults; whoever supports monthly earns from there being none. That is not a moral argument but a statement about which work takes place in which model at all.

Side by side

Criterion	Ongoing support	Billing by the hour
Billing	Fixed amount per workstation and month	Only the hours actually worked
Prevention	Updates and monitoring are included, verified backups from €49 per month	Does not happen — it would be unpaid work
Predictability	The amount sits in the budget, even in a bad month	Varies widely; a month with an outage costs a multiple
Response	Reports need no individual order; what support covers for faults is set out in the quote	Every report is an order — which delays reports
Knowledge of your systems	Maintained and documented continuously	Has to be rebuilt at every visit, and that costs hours
The provider's interest	Earns from little going wrong	Earns from something going wrong
Lock-in	One month’s notice to the end of a quarter, credentials and docs are yours	No commitment, but no assurances either

The table scrolls sideways.

When ongoing support fits

There is a server, a terminal server or a business application the company depends on.
One day of downtime costs more than a year of support — which is true from a handful of staff onwards.
Nobody in house is responsible for IT, and nobody wants the role.
You need backups that are not merely running but verified.

When hourly billing is the more honest answer

There are fewer than about five workstations, no server and no business application.
Work happens entirely in the cloud and the devices are current.
Somebody in house knows the technology and genuinely has time for it.
You need one project delivered, not an ongoing responsibility.

The arithmetic in two steps

Step one: count your workstations and servers and work out the monthly amount. Five workstations with one managed server and monitored backups come to a fixed monthly total at €29 per workstation, €89 for the server and €49 for the backup. Step two: divide that total by €95 — the result is the number of support hours from which the contract is cheaper. If your month exceeds it, the decision is made. If it does not, hourly billing is the right model for you, and we will say so.

Guide prices, net plus VAT. As of: October 2026 · IT support costs

Run it with your own figures In the cost calculator you enter workstations, servers and backups and see the monthly and annual totals — calculated from the same price list as here.

In Austria: who is liable when a provider looks after the technology?

For businesses in Upper Austria there is one point that rarely appears in a price comparison: under the GDPR and the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG), responsibility for your data stays with the business, even when a service provider looks after the technology. A data breach must be reported to the data protection authority within 72 hours (Art. 33 GDPR). Only those who already know before the incident where which data is stored and who has access can meet that deadline. Under ongoing support this is maintained as a matter of course; under pure hourly billing it is only worked out in an emergency. Anyone who wants to put the costs in perspective can ask the Wirtschaftskammer Oberösterreich about current consulting subsidies.

Florin Feier from Lenzing takes on the ongoing IT support mostly by remote maintenance, and on site if needed in Vöcklabruck, Gmunden, Salzburg, Linz, Wels and the Salzkammergut. For businesses around Wels there is the page IT service in Wels; individual problems without a contract are solved by IT help by the hour. If you are unsure whether a contract pays off, use the cost calculator as a first guide.

Frequently asked questions

What about a mixed model?

That is the most common case in practice and perfectly fine: server and backups under contract, because that is where prevention matters; individual workstations and projects billed by effort. The only requirement is that it is clear in advance what falls into which bucket — otherwise you get exactly the discussion both models are meant to avoid.

Is the contract not more expensive in a year when nothing happens?

Arithmetically yes — and that is the honest heart of the matter. But less happens in a supported year, because updates are applied, drives monitored and restores tested. A year without incidents is not proof that the support was unnecessary; it is its result. If that does not convince you, billing by effort is the right choice for you.

Do you have a minimum term?

Support runs from quarter to quarter. You cancel with one month’s notice to the end of a quarter and receive all credentials, passwords and documentation in full. We deliberately build in nothing that ties you to us technically — that would be a disadvantage for you and no lasting earning for us.

How do we move from one model to the other?

In both directions without difficulty. Moving from hourly to contract begins with taking stock, so that we know what we are taking on. The other way round we end the monitoring and hand over the documentation. Both are a matter of days, not months.

Want to sort this out for your business? You can discuss your case on Contract or hourly or put together an offer for Contract or hourly.